{"id":1325,"date":"2026-09-22T14:45:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:36:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T19:36:47","slug":"accessible-word-document-tables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/2026\/09\/22\/accessible-word-document-tables\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessible Word Document: Tables"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Overview<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Creating an accessible Word document ensures that your content is readable by everyone. For many learners, tables are the quickest way to find and compare information. By ensuring those tables are accessible helps everyone navigate the document more effectively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Video<\/span>
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Video Coming Soon<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

1. Accessible Tables<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two features of a table should be checked: the header row<\/strong> and the \u2018repeat header row<\/strong>\u2019 setting. Here’s how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Header Rows:<\/strong> Select your top row, go to Table Design<\/strong>, and ensure “Header Row”<\/strong> is checked. This tells the screen reader to repeat the column labels for every cell in that column.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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    1. Repeat Header Rows:<\/strong> Select your top row, go to Table Layout, and ensure \u201cRepeat header rows\u201d is checked. This makes sure the header row appears again if the table runs to the next page.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Avoid Merged Cells:<\/strong> Merged or nested cells confuse the reading order for assistive software. Keep your table structure simple and uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Avoid Using Empty Rows<\/strong>: Instead, to space out the content of a table, make rows larger. Select the table, go to the “Table Layout” tab and adjust “Table Row Height”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Avoid Using Empty Gray Background Rows:<\/strong> Instead, to make rows distinct, add alternating background color to the rows with content. Select the table, go to the “Table Layout” tab, and pick a layout that alternates between gray and white, or other high-contrast colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      Still have questions? Email us at FacultySupport@sps.cuny.edu<\/a>. We’re here to help!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Overview Creating an accessible Word document ensures that your content is readable by everyone. For many learners, tables are the quickest way to find and compare information. By ensuring those tables are accessible helps everyone navigate the document more effectively. 1. Accessible Tables Two features of a table should be checked: the header row and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/teaching-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}